Spectacular! Spectacular!

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2013)

I consider myself a pretty big fan of Guillermo Del Toro. I liked his unique vampire debut called CRONOS. I missed MIMIC and THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, but thought his BLADE II was a hell of a good time. Then he amped up the Blockbuster juice when he made HELLBOY and HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY. Both have fantastic performances from Ron Perlman, a great fantasy sensibility, and well crafted action sequences. But most people consider PAN'S LABYRINTH to be his masterpiece, and it's hard to argue with that. It's been 5 years since his last film (though he was slated to direct THE HOBBIT until Jackson took over). Well, now Del Toro is finally back and with a vengeance as he has made the biggest film of his career, PACIFIC RIM. Man, the universe that Del Toro has created here is so expansive that it's really hard to explain everything. There's just so much! Hmmm. How the hell do I do this? .okay.. So the movie is set in the future. A bunch of gigantic monsters from another dimension called Kaijus, have risen from a portal deep in the ocean. These beasts attack the coastal cities and threaten the very existence of man. To fight the Kaiju, the humans have created a bunch of gigantic robots called Jaegers. These robots are controlled by at least 2 humans at a time. The cockpit is in the head and the pilots are on some sort of treadmill-like machine that make the robots move exactly how they are moving. Also, the pilots are connected by the mind, so they can move as one. This is called "Drifting", which allows each pilot to enter the other's mind. It may sound like a bit to take in (and it is) but it's all pretty well explained in detail during the extended 17 minute prologue. (And thank you Mr. Del Toro for actually having the title appear in the beginning of the film!).